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A protest in Athens against the opening of new prisons. Demotix/Aggeliki Koronaiou. All rights reserved.

There’s
hardly a good time in history for being incarcerated. Stories around human
rights violations, crowded cells, unfair treatment, sexual assault and much
more that’s happening around
the world, are constantly in the news. But a mix of already crumbling
infrastructure, laws around parole and pre-trial detentions becoming ever more
punitive, a shifting ideological landscape and austerity, make 2014 Greece a
particularly dire place for criminal justice.

Looking at Greece’s overpopulated prison system
(12500 are currently in a system designed for a maximum 9800) one would think
it to be a particularly dangerous country. But this goes against reality: With
the exception of a brief spike in muggings and break-ins between 2011 and 2013,
Greece is a safe country and crime is on the decline. Looking at the type of
crime committed, there’s
little change there as well. Only begging has shot up,
250% in the past two years.

In this context, it makes little sense that the
New Democracy/Pasok coalition government pushed through during summer recess, a
law that allows for the creation of Type C prisons in the country. These
maximum security institutions, sometimes self-contained and sometimes housed in
separate wings of regular prisons, will host only those condemned for the most
dangerous crimes: terrorism, organised crime and engaging in “disruptive activity” while incarcerated. The Ministry claims
this is because it has to deal with rising crime and more dangerous criminals.

Looking at the stats they themselves provided,
their claims fall short. In a newsletter sent out by the Ministry of Citizen
Protection, it’s made abundantly
clear that crime is indeed on the decline. It’s worth asking: if this is so, why are
Greece’s prisons packed to
the brims and what is the need for these new maximum security establishments
that NGOs have labeled “Guantanamo-lite”?

The reactions it has caused are telling. The
radical left opposition party SYRIZA has condemned the government’s plans, calling them inhumane and completely
unjustified. Ex-coalition partner DIMAR, has taken a similar stance, noting that “it essentially signals the creation of ‘white cells’
that promote disciplinary action, complete immobilisation and conditions akin
to torture”. Apart from the two
ruling parties, no NGO, union or professional body supports Type C prisons.
4500 inmates across the country went on hunger strike for 10 days
to protest their opening, to no avail.

In this climate, the government is facing
accusations of politicising incarceration. They have repeatedly blocked reports
on the condition of Greek prisons and instead brought forward this proposal
that will drain much-needed funds away from the “conventional”
justice system, while contributing next to nothing to
the decongestion of existing infrastructure.

The creation of detention camps
for immigrants (that are now also overflowing with inmates held for little
reason other than finding themselves in Greece) was a clear sign that the Greek
justice system was entering a new phase, one that only concerns itself with the
crimes du jour, in a brutal and indiscriminate way that aims only to detain and
hide the problem, rather than rehabilitate.

Now, along with Type A, B and C prisons, they
will make up the new model of incarceration, tailored for these times of
politicised austerity: one that goes after political dissent and terrorism,
indebtedness and immigration.

Crime and punishment

With Greece’s GDP down a quarter from where it stood in
2008, debts towards the state from unpaid taxes and bills
have gradually risen and are now in the billions.
New punitive laws have been introduced, that can see private individuals sent
to prison for owing as little as $6700.
The creation of minimum security Type A prisons, alongside Type C, aims to aid
this pursuit of debtors, in a thinly-veiled re-introduction of the abominable Debtors’
Prison.

Rumours of such institutions were floated in 2013 as
well, but the reactions had forced the ministry to deny the existence of such
plans, before introducing them a year later. While Type B prisons are
essentially conventional institutions, Type C prisons come with a variety of
innovations. The ministry will decide if one is to be sent there, taking powers
away from the court of law. Inmates will get no leaves of absence and won’t be able to undertake community service
time.

Since these are dangerous criminals, extra
security measures might be justified. But the state’s track record with applying the “terrorism” and “organised crime” labels is too spotty.
Attending a demonstration with a covered face can get you charged under counter-terrorism
legislation. For months, the government has been trying to paint an
anti-gold mining group in Northern Greece as a criminal organisation.
Two anarchists arrested for armed robbery, were sentenced under the counter-terrorism law
despite the fact they had committed no act of terrorism, based solely on their
ideology.

It should go without saying that for those who did commit terrorist
acts, even if they caused no more than property damage, the sentences are
draconian. All these people are candidates for Type C prisons and the power to
send them there lies with the Ministry and not the courts. Another terrifying
aspect of Type C prisons, is that you can also be sent there even if you’re in pre-trial detention for these
charges.

We contacted DIMAR’s MP Maria Yiannakaki, who has been one of the most vocal opponents
of the government’s plans and
increasingly political agenda, and asked what this means for prisoners. She
said “Its aim is the
physical and moral annihilation of these people and conflates the criminal with
the crime. It essentially brings back the death penalty through the back door.
It promotes something unheard of in our legal discourse: the penalty on top of
a penalty. You get a sentence issued by the courts and then the minister of
justice can top it up”. “It completely negates any chance of
rehabilitation”, she concluded.

Yiannakaki seems to have a point. Part of the
government’s plan is to have the
police guard these new prisons, rather than correction officers. This is
already happening to a certain extent, because of how dramatically understaffed
most institutions are and it has already resulted in alleged brutality against
prisoners in at least one occasion. It should be no surprise considering the
Greek police’s track record of torturing arrestees,
colluding with the neo-nazi Golden Dawn
and exercising brutal force against demonstrators.
It’s beyond worrying
that they are now asked to perform an extra function, one that they are not
trained for.

Clio Papapantoleon, a lawyer and vice-chair of the Greek Association for Human Rights,
noted in a piece for Enthemata “ Opening maximum security prisons to ‘lock-up the bad guys once and for all’ is
an obsession. If we wanted to be honest, we would admit that no one will be
sleeping better because this law [went through]. If the state wants to be
serious and if it really wants security,[…] they need to look again at what “crime” and “sentence” mean”. For Greece, the definition of these two
words, the very foundations of legal science, has never been so blurry.

A new “model” for
Austerity Europe

Not only is it impossible for Greece to live up
to the standards of incarceration set by other European countries, but this
model of tailoring the justice system around perceived threats that only serve
the promotion of the austerity agenda, seems to be ripe for export. In fact,
Spain has been paving the road towards this for some time and, according to Belen Fernandez
writing on the perceived Muslim terrorist threat in the country for AJE, they
have legislated “a law [that]
prescribes fines of up to 600,000 euros ($809,307) for unauthorised gatherings
and protests in certain locations and of up to 30,000 euros ($40,465) for “obstructing authority in the carrying out
of administrative or judicial decisions, such as evictions”.”

The countries of southern Europe, the continent’s new Borderlands, are providing their
justice systems with the tools to crackdown on dissent, coupled with increasing
militarisation of the police. Greece is already thinking about bringing in drones
to use during demonstrations, counter-terrorism operations and to patrol the
country’s borders. The
Ministry of Citizen Protection has promised the police heavier equipment too.

But it should be obvious that the rationale of confrontation that New Democracy
is following serves no one in the long term and the fact it’s becoming the norm across Europe, is a
chilling prospect. But it’s
only logical, as austerity was always about more than just belt-tightening. As
citizens have to adjust to their new, precarious existence, so the state must
change in order to keep them in line.

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